Multi-billion-dollar failures in the UK and California demonstrate the hubris of big software projects

Are big IT projects doomed to failure? Software systems expert Robert Charette looks at some big failures in the news. Within the last week the UK has thrown up its hands and scaled back the National Health Service's National Program for IT after acknowledging that £12 billion has been spent with little to show for it. That story comes on the heels of a California newspaper investigation that looked at three big state government projects that are are $2 billion over budget, late, and performing poorly.